By REBECCA RUTHERFORD
Los Alamos
For the Los Alamos Daily Post

Scrolling through Facebook’s various online yard sale groups is fun, because what if I really, no really, need that vintage lawn gnome that my neighbor has posted for $5?

I have definitely snagged some bargains on our local yard sale sites, but wait, there’s more…

A really common scam I’ve seen a lot lately is the “free” laptop giveaway scam, appearing often in our local yard sale groups on Facebook, see example below.

What a sad story, and oh my gosh what a great, free laptop! These posts might be for a “free” laptop, but I’ve seen variations offering gaming systems, and other fun tech items. The offered item might change, but the scam is the same, and there is always a catch.

Every one of these is accompanied by an over the top sad story, i.e. their child/spouse/etc died and they must now rid themselves of the item for free. Other variations include the “cheating spouse” scam where they say their spouse cheated and so they are offering the item for free to “show their cheating spouse what they are missing and that they mean nothing”. There are likely others, but the gist is the same, something awful happened and I must now unload this amazing item for free.

So what’s the catch here? If you reply to the person, you will be told that the item is free but you must pay a shipping/insurance fee, usually of a reasonable enough amount that the item is still an incredible deal.  So you pay their fee and you wait for your item to arrive in the mail, but of course it never does. Free scam! What a bargain.

Usually the accounts used for these are either fake accounts, or an actual account of someone in the group already that has been compromised. This scam can occur on other platforms like Craigslist as well.

Signs to look for that a listing on an online marketplace is a scam:

• How long has the person been a group member? If they very recently joined the group, it’s much more likely whatever they are posting is a scam.
• Check out their profile, is it recently created and has very little friends or other activity? Also might be a scam.
• Caveat to both of these- if the account has been compromised it might look otherwise legit, but if the offer seems too good to be true… IT IS INDEED A SCAM! 🙂 

If it looks like a scam, quacks like a scam, smells like a scam, then it’s probably a scam.  Do not confront the seller. Report the post to the group or page admins and move on. Do not interact with the post, because any interaction may catch the scammer’s attention, plus this boosts the posting algorithm wise and may make it more popular. Leave it alone, and report it and go to Ebay or Best Buy like the rest of us.  

Stay safe online, and always be suspicious!